About Flores:

What to buy:

Flores produces its own distinctive style of famous “Ikat” (woven cloth) as well as its own distinctive tasting coffee.

Places of interest:

Kelimutu; there are 3 lakes at Kelimutu at which it is said the souls of the dead go to. Each lake has different coloured water, the souls of the young its said go to the green lake; the souls of the old to the red lake and of course the evil souls to the black lake.
Ruteng; The main business center for Flores

Ende; this is the capital of Flores and where the Dutch exiled the first President of Indonesia, Soekarno to in the1930`s, you can still visit his former house.
Wolowaru; A largish village from which you can access to the much smaller weaving villages of Nggela, Jopu and Wolonjita. Intricate woven sarongs and shawls can be bought here.
Maumere; This port town has been completely rebuilt following a devastating earthquake followed by a Tsunami with a 20 meter wave back in December 1992, ikat weaving traditions are very strong here.

The Ngada people; Now Christian, they still to this day keep many of their ancient rituals and customs from the days of “animism. They practice ironmongery, pottery and dye cloth to make traditional sarongs with beautiful yellow embroidery.

Komodo National Park: Famous throughout the World where one can still to this day physically see live dragons in their natural habitat, the “Komodo Dragon”. The park has been extended to incorporate the surrounding waters which are home to one of the richest fish faunas in the World.

Dive Locations Around Flores:

Gilli Lawa Laut Area.

Crystal Rock; Many varieties of corals large marine life for example: - reef sharks, giant trevallys, hawksbill turtles and eagle ray, small marine life for example: - nudibranchs, scorpion fish, and octopus, with the occasional dolphin swimming in the currents.

Full Moon; Many varieties of hard corals, blue ribbon eels along with bat fish, hawksbill turtles, luminous blue fusiliers, black & white tip reef sharks with grey sharks usually in the deeper waters and again dolphin on occasions swimming through.

Lighthouse Reef: A couple of huge Napoleon wrasse have made their home here, rather large coral trout, red tooth triggerfish and Palette Surgeons also found here and quite often Mantas swim into the shallow waters for cleaning sessions.

The Cauldron: Take heed of the name, when the current is running the waters looks like the top of a boiling pot. Once down at the bottom, 24 mts. The rock faces are covered with every colour of hard & soft coral you can imagine, black & white tip reef sharks as well as giant blue fin trevallys.

Stingray City: As the name suggests lots of blue spotted mask rays and blue spotted fan tail rays along with a group of bumphead parrot fish.

Coral Garden Steep: Nice shallow coral garden where one can find white tip sharks, many different varieties of rays; Jenkins whip, porcupine, blue spotted and of course Manta. Also you can find crocodile fish & scorpion fish.

Aquarium: Great location to spend the time watching Mantas, also you can find leaf fish, white tip sharks, bumphead parrot fish, hawksbill turtle, pipe fish, and garden eels.

Gold: Fancy a Drift dive, then this is for you which you will share with bumphead parrot fish, fusiliers, giant trevallys and towards the end of the dive crocodile fish and leaf fish.

North West of Labuan Bajo:

Sabolon Kecil: A slope off the east side of this tiny island with fields of garden eels and sea pens, schools of round bat fish which come very close so you can get some good photographs in this location.

Sabolon Besar: Steep slope off the southern side of the bigger island, good chance of spotting leaf scorpion fish, crocodile fish, bat fish and white tip sharks.

South West of Labuan Bajo:

Sebayur: Good location for the macro photographers with leaf scorpion fish, ghost pipe fish, robust pipe fish, banded pipe fish, blue ringed octopus and crocodile fish.

Tetawa Besar:

Orange Grove: A gentle slope with as the name suggests an orange coloured soft coral garden changing to hard corals along the way, lots of schooling fusiliers, hawksbill turtles and white tip reef sharks and many varieties of nudibranchs also Mantas during the rainy season

Manta Corner: nice coral covered slope with mantas during the rainy season, along with leaf scorpion fish, blue ribbon eels, turtles and white tip reef sharks.

Tetawa Kecil:

As the name suggests a small island that gets strong currents, not an easy dive location, however if you are experienced enough you can get to see schools of pelagic fish, bat fish, napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrot fish along with nurse sharks and bamboo sharks

Siaba Kecil:

Airstrip: A long stone rubble road which stretches along the East coast of Komodo, again can have quite strong currents, chances of seeing manta rays which use this location as a cleaning station, white & black tip reef sharks, nurse sharks, bamboo sharks and even sightings of leopard shark, along with dugongs and bumphead parrot fish.

Above we have listed some of the dive locations that are available, for additional sites around Komodo please either contact us or we can give more details once you arrive in Bali at the start of your 2 center dive safari with us.